I'm a Friend, Insists Berlusconi After Holocaust Remarks

Italy's former premier Silvio Berlusconi insisted he is a friend of Jewish people and Germany on Monday, in a bid to quell international outrage sparked by his controversial remarks about the Holocaust, AFP reported.

Berlusconi said he was "a historic friend of the Jewish people and the state of Israel" and it was "surreal to attribute to me anti-German sentiment or a presumed hostility towards the German people, to whom I am a friend."